


i get a little bit nervous around you (so i got tipsy and unravelled)

by faith_missingawae



Series: dorks in love [1]
Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, Freeform?, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, Shirbert shenanigans, Twitter Prompt, anne being oblivious, both were tipsy, creds to aly, fluff-ish, gil being a nervous wreck, idk what to tag, so that's why they were bold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27865513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faith_missingawae/pseuds/faith_missingawae
Summary: Gilbert Blythe finally works up the courage to ask out Anne Shirley Cuthbert, (although it takes mutual tipsiness for it to happen) can't believe her answer, and so ends up dragging a very amused (but also disgruntled) Bash Lacroix into the mix.or3k words of gilbert nervously pining, anne being oblivious but also somehow pining, in a modern, barely described, party setting(i suck at descriptive writing so please forgive me)
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Series: dorks in love [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2040854
Comments: 20
Kudos: 93





	i get a little bit nervous around you (so i got tipsy and unravelled)

**Author's Note:**

> one shot based on aly's (@/academbrella on twitter) tweet about gilbert being unable to believe that anne said yes, so he goes off and gets bash to confirm.
> 
> i took some liberties, and this is what my brain came up with.
> 
> thank you so much to macy (whatletterdiana), may (rainbowshirbert), nicole, bia, and whoever else decided to help me with this after seeing me talk (read: get stressed) about it on the tl.

There was a _slight_ chance Anne Shirley Cuthbert was drunk.

Although, if you asked the redhead in question it was more likely that she'd vehemently disagree, having a fierce glare at hand just in case the words didn't do the trick.

Anne sat back, nursing her cup as she surveyed the scene in front of her, the absolute chaos of the house certainly not helping the headache she was trying her best to ignore

She knew that they were graduating soon and it was exciting but did everything have to be so _loud?_

Anne took another sip, being able to control her grimace better now than the first sip.

She scanned the crowd for her friends, who seemed to have disappeared into the thick of the party, and sighed when her half hearted search didn't bring any results whatsoever

Maybe she would've peeled herself off the wall to go and find them, had she been less _not_ drunk, but Anne was content to just stay in the shadows and twirl her dwindling cup of cheap booze

Although the Andrews were rich enough to be haughty about it, it was Avonlea, a place where no matter the century there were always insufferable rules in the name of "pride" and "honor" and all that bull that Anne seemed to have a particular taste for breaking wide open.

So of course the Andrew siblings who had thrown the party when their parents were away for a trip to some fancy weekend place had to rely on discreetly bought booze that wasn't the best, _their_ judgment not Anne's (it wasn't like she sampled alcohol of every price range or something in her free time; her adoptive mother would've had a heart attack) but Anne didn't really drink and she wanted the night to get over so hence the small sips

Maybe if she had been more drunk there was a slight chance she'd be in the center of it all, cracking bad puns and ignoring the constant filter she had to have for her thoughts.

Although to be fair, if it _was_ an important but controversial thought, Anne's brain would just gloss over the controversial bit and give the green light for her tongue to spit it out.

She had gotten into trouble many times for this, but it seemed like she'd not learned her lesson, in any permanent way at least.

-

**To go or not to go?**

_'Clearly_ Anne Shirley-Cuthbert was rubbing off on him if he had resorted to creative licensing of Shakespeare's quotes of all people’, Gilbert Blythe thought with a small smile

Even if his current source of worry was the redhead in question.

Gilbert had **kind of** liked Anne for years now, and recently every time he thought about asking her out, he either managed to screw it up and had to abort or just ended up not going through with it, chickening out at the last moment.

His rotten luck with Anne had started from the day he met her when he had pulled her braid and called her 'Carrots' and she smacked her pencil case across his face.

To be fair, that was in middle school and Gilbert was **mostly** sure Anne didn't hate his guts.

He would've never mentioned his crush to anyone, let alone **her** but his brother Bash was convinced that Gilbert was a dumbass who was still in denial about his feelings, which according to him went deeper than just infatuation.

He might've protested at that once, but after having to break up with his girlfriend who he'd thought he loved for a while, Gilbert hated to admit that _maybe_ Bash had a point.

Everything he felt about Anne was overwhelming, to say the least but it just felt right in a way that it didn't with anyone else.

He still didn't want to admit that he liked Anne and end up losing the tentative ground they had built as ‘kind of close’, but the alcohol he had downed in his anxiety gave him an inkling of hope that _maybe_ Anne felt the same he did.

_They certainly looked at each other a **lot** right? it wasn't just him being a creep?_

Gilbert wanted to groan in frustration but he was in public so he just sighed deeply into his hands and then put one into his already messy hair, noting that he needed a haircut sometime soon.

"I should just get this over with," Gilbert mumbled to himself but making no move towards the disinterested redhead who seemed like she was content with her wallflower position.

Sighing deeply, he finally decided to get it over with, pretending that he would be better off having his feelings out in the open.

He didn't really think that; he was trying to ignore the crushing feeling that Anne's likely rejection would bring but he was tired of having to second guess all his actions (and subsequently hers, which were the ones who put him in this dilemma in the first place)

It wasn't that Gilbert felt deserving of Anne's affections. He would never expect someone to just like him, no matter how nice he was or how deep his so called infatuation was, it was that _sometimes,_ just sometimes in the space before his brain decided to dismiss it as his longing, he felt that Anne reciprocated his feelings.

That she didn't think of him just as a friend, but as something _more._

He hung onto that feeling tightly as he shuffled his way to Anne's side, her not having noticed him over the ruckus of the party.

That was good. It gave him a moment to compose himself and breathe in quietly.

"Hey Shirley," he finally spoke, his voice a bit soft.

-

"Hey Shirley." Anne hadn't realized that she had wall side company.

If she had, she would've been more in control of her reaction, especially as it was Gilbert Blythe.

Anne ignored the fact that _maybe_ her slight drinking had contributed.

She let out a sound somewhere between a squeak and a cough, she wasn't sure how, and Gilbert froze, an eyebrow raised as he looked at her in confusion

"Sorry," Anne mumbled, her cheeks red and coughed, trying to frantically come up with some excuse.

She didn't get one and since Gilbert was still looking at her with mild concern, she just gestured lamely at her throat.

"Oh," he noted, his eyebrows knitting together.

"Yeah," Anne rasped, but it wasn't from the fake throat problem. "So, uh what's up Blythe?"

They weren't strangers, and were certainly more than acquaintances but Anne found that she usually hung back more from Gilbert than she did with her other friends, and she wasn't exactly sure why.

Anne heard Diana's voice in her mind, and her bosom friend's unconvinced expression came to her mind but she didn't want to think about it so she ignored it.

He shrugged, the shrug a bit jerky due to his nervousness but Anne hadn't noticed.

Anne Shirley-Cuthbert was a mindful person, generally, but she did have her obtuse moments.

"You uh having fun?" Gilbert knew that he shouldn't have drunk anything, especially since he felt how dry his throat was when he swallowed, but if it weren't for the liquid courage in his veins he would've probably run away already.

Anne raised an eyebrow. "Does it look like I'm having fun, Gilbert Blythe?"

He froze for a second, but then couldn't help smiling a bit at Anne's dramatics.

"You dare disgrace the sacredness of the ancient art of pretending to be a wallflower?" he finally asked, cringing internally as he felt that something was off about the last part.

Maybe it was the grammar. Maybe it was the entire fucking thing? He wasn’t really sure.

Gilbert wouldn't be surprised if Anne wrote him off as an absolute dork and just left in embarrassment.

what the **hell** was that?

He was almost afraid to look at Anne, but since he seemed to have some internal desire to watch his own downfall he glanced at her.

Her lips were twitching.

**Wait-**

-

Anne had a doubt that Gilbert was a bit jittery around her, but she dismissed it.

_Why would he be? It's just me?_

Besides, Gilbert Blythe, Avonlea High's "golden boy" didn't get _nervous._

So when he asked her if she was having fun, she tried her best to be nonchalant.

See, Anne may or may not have had a crush on Gilbert, although she was very adamant that she did _not._

While they were friends, close due to their families and multiple mishaps that Anne constantly ended up apologizing for, there was still something between them that prevented Anne from treating him like she would Jerry or Cole.

Granted Jerry was the annoying brother she had never asked for but couldn't live without but the fact remained that she had always treated Gilbert differently from all her other friends

It wasn't that she didn't like him. She did (not like _that,_ but still) but it was different.

Anne could almost hear her darling Diana's quiet sigh and Cole's eye roll at her train of thoughts.

Cole had been teasing her about Gilbert ever since he had spent like five minutes with both of them during one of their escapades.

It got annoying sometimes but recently Anne had found that she'd gotten rather sad at the thought of her and Gilbert together, a far cry from the initial disgusted and annoyed retorts she had flung back at an amused Cole.

Even if she _did_ like him, which she did not, there was no way in hell that Gilbert John Blythe the Golden Boy actually saw her as anything more than a friendly amusement.

She knew what the girls in her school, and some guys thought about him. She was well aware that he could smile and some girls would literally drop dead at the sight.

While that _may_ have sounded like an exaggeration, a thing Anne was trying to cut down on but the number of times she had heard Ruby Gillis gushing over Gilbert's smile or his work ethic or even his eyes, it made her feel like nothing was an exaggeration when it came to how absolutely _adored_ Gilbert was.

Maybe it was the alcohol (it probably was but Anne wasn't called stubborn for nothing) but even though she had a lot of thoughts to sort through right then, all of them seemed to fly through her head pretty fast.

So although it took her for a moment to register that Gilbert was talking, she did catch up on early enough to not miss what he said.

And she was very thankful that she didn't.

Anne had known Gilbert for quite a while now, but she had forgotten that sometimes Gilbert could be such a dork.

He had spent their first year of knowing each other teasing her in his easy manner, his smiles carefree even when Anne never reciprocated.

She wanted to, she really did but Ruby was head over heels in her infatuation and she had found that out the hard way.

Then his dad died.

Right.

Anne tried not to think about that or the subsequent events, where she had tried to comfort him with disastrous results, and when even her attempts at an apology had been thwarted as she had arrived at an empty house, Gilbert having long gone.

She did get a chance to apologize when they had unexpectedly met in the town over-

Wait, _why_ was she internally rehashing their entire history?

She wasn't sure.

She snapped out of her thoughts as she realized that he was gazing at her, his expression indescribably soft.

Although Anne was working on her insecurities when it came to her looks, she tended to avoid letting people get a full look of her freckled face for long.

She also would have found it creepy if it was any other person staring at her (it _was_ staring, wasn't it?) but something in Gilbert's expression made her feel safe

_Okay,_ she had to be flat out drunk.

Anne internally scoffed at her own mind.

"Anne?" Gilbert asked quietly, breaking eye contact with her to look at his hands.

"Yeah?"

Dammit, her voice sounded breathy as hell.

-

Anne's soft 'yeah' gave Gilbert the courage he needed to go on.

"I was wondering if....," he trailed off, his emotions all over the place.

Fuck, he was nervous.

Since he had already started, it only made sense to get the rest of it out.

**Deep** breaths, Gilbert.

It's going to be either a yes or a no

You'll survive either way.

"Would you go out with me?" he asked, his voice very quiet.

He still didn't look at Anne's expression, worried about what he'd see.

She didn't say anything for a while.

**Fuck.**

-

Anne was idly thinking about how Gilbert looked really cute when he was nervous

Wait, why was he nervous?

She furrowed her eyebrows, confused.

When he finally spoke, asking her out in the same breath, all she felt was shock

She had to be dreaming, or black out drunk or something.

There was no way Gilbert Blythe was asking her out.

Anne pinched herself in a daze, letting out a yelp as she accidentally pinched herself too hard.

Gilbert, who hadn't met her eyes till then, looked up in alarm

-

"Anne, you don't have to say yes." The words were rushing out faster than Gilbert could even reconsider them

He definitely blamed the alcohol for that

"You can say no. I should've known better. This was dumb, I'm sorry-"

"Yes," Anne finally interrupted him.

Gilbert froze.

"I'm sorry, what?" he finally whispered.

-

Anne was watching Gilbert get flustered in front of her when she came to a realization.

Before whenever someone would gush about how attractive he was, Anne would often quip about how subjectively, she didn't _really_ see what they all saw.

_Now?_ She found his nervousness endearing.

She wanted to touch his curls that were flopping on his forehead and kiss him mid nervous backtracking.

She fisted her hands at her sides. Kissing would have to come later.

_Later?_ Dear Lord, she was screwed.

"Yes," Anne interrupted him as he was in the middle of apologizing.

Gilbert froze, blinking at her.

He looked so shocked Anne wanted to laugh

"I'm sorry, what?" he finally whispered, his voice giving her goosebumps.

-

Anne smiled, her smile radiant.

"Yes, I will go out with you Gilbert Blythe," she said, her cheeks pink.

Gilbert was dumbfounded for a few seconds until a relieved smile broke out.

"Really?" he asked, unable to tamp down his grin.

Anne smiled, nodding in response.

He wasn't sure how it was possible but his smile became wider.

She had said yes!

Although he was hoping that she would, and he really wanted her to, hearing her say it was another thing.

This was real right?

Gilbert felt a flicker of doubt.

Of course it was.

There was **no** way his mind would conjure up a full house of screaming kids and sweaty bodies just to hear Anne Shirley Cuthbert agree to him asking her out.

He knew it was the tipsiness talking, but now he had to be sure that this was real.

-

Anne may or not have been tipsy but she could very well see the emotions on Gilbert's face.

It looked like he was having an internal argument with himself.

She could say that with certainty because she had a lot of them too.

Gilbert finally looked at her when it seemed like he had gotten a conclusion to whatever was plaguing him.

"Um, Anne? Sorry to keep asking you, but you really did say yes right?" Gilbert asked her, ducking down to avoid her gaze.

Anne let out a laugh at his bashfulness. "Last I checked, I did."

He smiled softly at her before shaking his head after realizing something.

"Just wait here, I'll be back in a bit," he told her quickly, rushing off somewhere.

"Sure?" Anne said to the space he had left behind, trying and failing to avoid a squeal escaping past her lips.

It was nice to know that she wasn't the _only_ one in disbelief.

-

Anne really did want to refill her cup but she didn't want to miss Gilbert.

It wasn't because of any particular desire to drink but she needed something to quell her nerves and a drink seemed like it would help.

"How long am I supposed to _just_ stand here?" she wondered out loud, looking at her peers who still seemed like they weren't tired yet.

She was glad that she had gotten a relatively non-crowded spot though, considering that there seemed to be people teeming at every corner of the house.

She was just about to say fuck it and leave _(she knew that she wouldn't have, but a small part of her really wanted to in case Gilbert was reconsidering the whole date thing)_ when Gilbert showed up again, breathing heavily.

"Uh Blythe? You alright?" she asked, kind of worried but also amused.

He waved away his concern, using his hand to point at his companion.

It was then that Anne noticed Bash, who was looking amused at both of them under a layer of exhaustion.

"Yeah Blythe? Why the hell did you drag me out here at," Bash stopped for a second to check his watch, "the middle of the night? Really?"

He glared at Gilbert who shrugged and then glanced at Anne.

"This _better_ be important, you moke."

He crossed his arms and waited for Gilbert's reply.

Gilbert nodded, taking in a few gulps of air.

"Could you say it again?" he finally asked Anne, his nervousness very evident.

"Again?" Anne asked, unable to stop her surprised laugh.

"Is it really hard to believe that I would say yes to going out with you Gilbert?"

"Well, yeah," Gilbert admitted quietly, Anne noticing that the tips of his ears had turned pink.

"I mean, it's you," he added, making Anne raise her eyebrows.

"Whatever do you mean, it's me?" Anne drawled, crossing her arms.

She snuck a glance at Bash who was smirking at Gilbert, although there was a look of genuine happiness in his eyes.

"You're Anne Shirley Cuthbert, and well you're pretty fucking incredible," Gilbert glanced at her, his gaze earnest.

"Besides, I'm _kind_ of drunk and I'm not sure if this is real or me hallucinating," he joked, running a hand through his hair.

"Oh."

Anne didn't know what to say.

What exactly was she supposed to say?

"But _I'm_ tipsy too?" she finally blurted out, her cheeks reddening as soon as she realized that what she said made absolutely no sense.

Both Gilbert and Bash looked at her in surprise.

"I just meant that I didn't go off and find Diana to check whether this was real-" Anne tried to amend, her words trailing as she realized that she still made no sense whatsoever.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments.

"That's probably because **he's** a moke, and you aren't," Bash quipped, breaking the silence by slapping Gilbert on the shoulder.

Anne couldn't help but glance at Gilbert who rolled his eyes good naturedly.

"That also makes sense why she said yes, Blythe. Poor Anne here isn't completely in her senses right now," Bash continued, earning a half hearted glare from Gilbert.

Gilbert's eyes widened as he registered Bash's words and slowly looked at Anne.

"I swear to god, Gilbert Blythe. If you ask me one more time, I might have to change my answer," Anne threatened him.

It would have been more believable if not for her uncontrollable giggles as she said it.

Bash snorted, looking at her in approval.

"You and I, we're going to have a **lot** of fun," he told her smiling

Gilbert looked between the two of them, his eyes widening but even he couldn't stop the smile that bloomed across his face.

**Author's Note:**

> so uhh i hope you all liked it?
> 
> anyway i'm low-key convinced that if we had a slightly less drunk anne and a slightly more inebriated gilbert during the bonfire scene, maybe we'd have been spared of all that angst that moira loves to give us.
> 
> i'm hoping that their characterization was half decent
> 
> and this was meant to be a one shot, but now idk, i think i'd like to write a tipsy gilbert frantically calling bash to come over to the andrews' place-
> 
> no promises lol.
> 
> anyway, i'd love to hear what you all think of this :)


End file.
